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Cybersecurity has been a major topic of discussion in recent years, with suspected Chinese spy balloons floating overhead, a major Appalachian pipeline hacked with ransomware and questions about mysterious drones over New Jersey skies.
But one area of focus was overlooked in this regard is agricultureseveral prominent figures have said, especially with the United States set to lend its top political leaders to Washington in the new year.
Dakota State University President Jose-Marie Griffiths told Fox News Digital how important the heartland has become geopolitically, with several Dakotans winning leadership or cabinet positions in the new year, including Sen. Mike Rounds, RSD, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee. on cyber security.
“I’ve said a lot in the past and in testimony (to Congress) about my concerns about agriculture and food production is fundamental infrastructure, which came pretty late to the cybersecurity critical infrastructure table,” Griffiths said.
INFLATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND GLOBALISM ARE POTENTIAL DEATH SENTENCES FOR US AG: FARMERS
“People (are) going to start to realize that the agricultural vehicles they’re using more and more are autonomous and connected to broadband (via) satellite, and other ways that they become vulnerable. And for people who want to hurt us, are exploiting vulnerabilities as much as they can.”
Residents across the center are paying much more attention to the threats China and other rivals pose to the U.S. agricultural sector, he said.
With advances in technology, hackers can now find their way into harvesters, barns and the nation’s freight train network, Griffiths and Rounds said separately.
Whether the cash crop is Pennsylvania potatoes, Florida oranges or Dakota wheat, all are crucial to the U.S. economy and supply chain, and all can be subject to cyber threats, Griffiths suggested.
Rounds told Fox News Digital that he has studied for some time the potential vulnerabilities of the North American agricultural sector when it comes to foreign actors and cybersecurity.
“It’s more than just the vehicles and so on,” he said.
“A lot of it has to do with the infrastructure we rely on. A good example is your water systems; your power systems… All of those are now connected and they all have cyber entry points.
“And so we’ve been, for a long period of time, looking at threats that could come from overseas from adversaries who would want to infiltrate not only water supplies, but also power systems … and in some cases, down the drain.”
Rounds said he and other lawmakers have focused on where bad actors can proverbially “shoot arrows at us” and figure out who they are and how to stop them.
He said the Chinese firm Huawei had been selling cheap hardware to rural telecommunications entities and could infiltrate communications systems.
“Once we found out that there were … that they could put in dormant materials that could be activated at a later date, we removed most of them. But this is just one example of the ways that rural areas can be a way into the rest of our communication systems,” he said.
Rounds said drones are increasingly being used in agriculture and are also at risk of being hacked.
Vehicles such as harvesters and tractors have also advanced a lot technologically in the short term and face similar challenges.
“A lot of this right now is done with GPS. You get into your tractor, you plug it in, and it will basically drive it for you. We put people in these tractors, but at some point in the game, some of them. can also become autonomous, and they are subject to cyberintervention…,” he said.
Grain elevators It can also be interfered with, making it difficult to market and transport, and endangers the larger supply chain and a farmer’s ability to sell on the open market, Rounds said.
When asked if he preferred the agricultural sector today to the pre-automation era, Rounds said it’s not about what he thinks, but what will happen in the future.
“We’re going to have more and more autonomous vehicles that are going to be used in agriculture. And the reason is that we don’t have labor, and we’re replacing it with machinery. The machinery is going to get bigger. It’s going to get more sophisticated, and we S’ will expect it to do more things with fewer people operating them,” he said.
“The supply chain is so critical. We depend on autonomy in many cases for a lot of the delivery of our resources, both to the farmer, but also to the withdrawal of the farmer in terms of a commodity that wants to market”.
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Senator Mike Rounds, RS.D., left, meets with Pete Hegseth. (AP)
If this new technologically advanced system malfunctions or is hacked, it will greatly disrupt the ability to provide the raw materials to the people and companies that “really make the bread” and such.
Amit Yoran, CEO of exposure management firm Tenable, recently testified before the House Homeland Security Committee and spoke at length about cyber threats to America’s critical infrastructure.
Asked about cyber security in the field of agriculture, Yoran recently told Fox News Digital that “there is no single defense paradigm that can be effectively applied to all sectors.”
“Some critical infrastructure providers have a high degree of cybersecurity readiness, a strong understanding of risk and risk management practices, and very strong security programs. Others are very poorly prepared,” said Yoran, whose company is headquartered in Howard County, Maryland.
